What a day. J and G put a portable LP heater in my cabin. Add an electric one and I'll have a very cozy workspace again. It gets dead cold with no heat down there. Can't wait to try it all out next week, certainly by Wednesday. E is out of school on Mon and Tues for teacher workdays and J is on vacation for Veteran's Day on Friday so this will be a short working week for writing.

And I got all busy today. Finished reading the novel excerpt I'm critiquing and started looking at it from the forest perspective. Kept the home fire going in the woodstove. Cooked butternut squash because it's been piling up on the countertop. Then thought about making a pie and proving to J that it's basically like pumpkin (milder taste, actually). Got the cooked squash scooped and then saw that all of my pie crust mix was yuck with bugs. Life in the country. So I went to the store and did the shopping. Came home and made the pies. Yes, pies. I had more than enough squash for 2 pies. Neighbor came over for eggs and I gave her a pie. Made a 'portugese' soup recipe to use up the 'braising greens' in this week's farm basket. With the andouille saussage it was pretty good. Spicy though. My tongue hasn't forgiven me yet.

In other news this weekend:We let the girls out for a run. They really like leaves and pine needles. Mrs G. went roof-running again. E&J finally carved their pumpkin, which is now lit and grinning like an idiot at us. I filled out paperwork for transferring an IRA to another broker. I made a hotel reservation for our (late) anniversary date on the 18th. I bought pink Wellies and a new padded flannel shirt. E bought a new Barbie from the 12 Dancing Princesses collection with her egg money. What a marketing scheme.

And I could have been in Austin this weekend. Sheesh. What *was* I thinking?